The quality of growth: Key to less poverty and better lives for all

Development generally calls for economic growth, but it also involves the human, social, environmental, and governance dimensions. Quantitative and qualitative aspects must be part of the same agenda in order to improve the quality of people's lives and expand their ability to shape their own future.

The Quality of growth

The last decade of the 20th century witnessed striking progress in many parts of the world but also saw stagnation and setbacks--even in countries that had previously experienced fast economic growth. These large differences and sharp reversals in outcomes have taught us much about what contributes to development. Economic growth remains central--not just its pace, but crucially also its quality.Viewing both the pace of growth and these qualitative factors defining the nature of thatgrowth puts the spotlight on balanced growth of at least three sets of a country's assets: physical, human, and natural capital. This view replaces an almost exclusive focus on promoting the accumulation of physical capital. Thus, The Quality of Growth advocates broadening the policy framework to include the human and natural capital and extending the agenda for action to go beyond the pace of growth to include the qualitative attributes of the growth process. (Au)